How Our Online Retailers Foster Gender Equality

In the spirit of International Women’s Day today, I thought we’d bring you some of the measures that a few of our online retailers are undertaking at their workplaces that is helping to bridge the gap and promotes gender equality.

What do you do to foster equality amongst both genders of your business and workforce and why is this important?

March 8th marks International Women’s day and Catch Group took some time out this morning to celebrate our diverse workforce by holding a morning tea, amongst other events, to celebrate our diversity. Over 40 percent of Catch Group’s workforce and more than 55 percent of the customer base are women, so we understand the importance that women play in our brand and continue to focus on making them an key ingredient in our business’s success. We strive to offer a great working environment for our women and offer our female customers one of the most diverse and value driven product ranges in the Australian e-commerce space.

People are key to Styletread – both our customers and the wonderful team that have made the business a success. Styletread is part of a group (MFG) who has a strong, driven and successful woman as our leader. Kerrie Munro leads by example supporting her employees with opportunity and development – fundamental principles of the business.

Opportunity and equality go hand in hand at Styletread. All team members are given the chance for internal transfers and promotion. We understand that work is just one part of life and do all we can to facilitate a balance between the two. The majority of team at Styletread and the wider group are women and many work part time or do set hours to ensure they can fulfill all the other demands of their life. Members of our team may have periods of challenging change, be parents and/or primary caregivers and such things need flexibility and support from the work place. Key is treating each team member as an individual human with unique needs and valuing their contribution to the business.

I am a staunch feminist and strong believer in gender equality, so this issue is very close to my heart. I also see the results that a gender diverse team can deliver – particularly in retail where the majority of purchasing decisions are made by women.

I think flexibility is tremendously important, and at Adore Beauty we are proud to encourage both male and female team members to structure their working week around their family responsibilities.

I’ve had two babies myself (the youngest is just 8 months old) and I would like to think that I am leading by example, in terms of returning to the office part time after four weeks and sharing the parenting with my partner. Flexibility around parental leave and returning to work is definitely extended to both genders.

Personally, I always like to get home to have dinner with the family, so I certainly don’t expect anyone else to be in the office till late. It’s very rare that you would find anyone still in the office after 6pm. And as a fast-growing company, there are many opportunities for career growth and progress within the team. We love encouraging contribution from all levels within the company.

It’s a great question and the honest answer is that we don’t even consider equality at Ry. I have a firm belief that the gender of my staff bears no impact on their ability, we offer the same positions within the company to male and females, pay rates are equal and no one is ever given special treatment based on gender. In saying that, we are a predominantly female workforce, due to the fact that applicants are 90 percent female when we advertise new positions. Currently, across the business we have both males and females in our salons, IT team, warehouse and other departments. Ultimately, it comes down to attitude over everything else at Ry, that is what we look for when hiring and promoting.

Prinitha is the Editor of Power Retail. She has an editorial background in digital and newspaper publishing, news and sports presenting, as well as communications advisory in politics. Prinitha is passionate about fashion, lifestyle, health and wellbeing, loves adventure and enjoys a bit of retail therapy to complement her personal style.